


Let Me See (What's Inside)

by flipflop_diva



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Developing Friendships, F/M, Post-Iron Man 2, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 04:25:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15259407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: He found her in the cafeteria, reading something on a small tablet. He slid the extra cup of coffee across the table to her.She looked up from her tablet and scowled.“What are you doing here?”He took a sip of his own coffee. “Can’t a person come to see their friend for coffee?”“We aren’t friends.”“I’m hurt, Romanoff.”“You don’t even like me.”"That could change."





	Let Me See (What's Inside)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sandyk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/gifts).



> Written for the 2018 Not For Prime Time fest.

It was trickier to get past the guy at the front desk than he had planned. 

“I’m Tony Stark. Iron Man. I’ve met with Fury personally. We’re practically best friends.”

“You’re not on the list, Sir.”

“I don’t need to be on the list.”

“Everyone needs to be on the list, Sir.”

Fortunately — or not — his good friend Agent happened to step in right there.

“He can vouch for me!” Tony said.

Coulson looked like he really didn’t want to, but he did, and Tony was in. He found her in the cafeteria, reading something on a small tablet. He slid the extra cup of coffee — with cream and sugar, after he had made Pepper tell him how she liked it — across the table to her.

She looked up from her tablet and scowled. 

“What are you doing here?”

He took a sip of his own coffee. “Can’t a person come to see their friend for coffee?”

“We aren’t friends.”

“I’m hurt, Romanoff.”

“You don’t even like me.”

"That could change. Although," he pointed out, quite reasonably he thought, “You did try to kill me." 

Natalie — _Natasha._ He was still getting used to that — rolled her eyes. “I was saving your life.”

“Next time you should try asking for permission. Also when you sneak into my company.”

“I didn’t sneak in. I applied.”

“I’m pretty sure I never saw a resume for one Natasha Romanoff.” He took another sip of coffee. She hadn’t touched hers.

“What are you doing here, Stark?” she asked him again.

“Tell me something real about yourself, and I’ll leave.”

“I’ve already told you many real things about myself,” she said. And she stood up then and walked away.

•••

He came back the next day. And the next. And the next. By the fifth, she actually drank the coffee. On the sixth, when he got there before her, she came in and sat across from him and took her drink.

He looked her over. Under that cool gaze and expressionless face, she seemed tired.

“Go out with me,” he said.

“No.” She didn’t even hesitate.

“Please.” This time he rolled his eyes. “Not a date. Just out of here. There are some good coffee shops that are not in a SHIELD cafeteria.”

“No,” she said again.

“You like people staring at us every day?” He made a small gesture, looked up to see multitudes of eyes darting back to their own lunches, like they hadn’t all been staring at them both now and every day since he had started showing up.

“If you’d stop coming, they’d stop staring,” Natasha said coolly.

“Would they?” He had heard the whispers, not just in the cafeteria but in the hallways. These people, for being spies or secret agents or whatever they were, were not very subtle. There was no way she didn’t know they didn’t talk about her. 

She didn’t answer, just took a sip of her coffee, but he thought somewhere deep in her eyes he saw a flicker of something.

“Just one time,” he said. “I’ll make sure not to poison you. Or drug you without your knowledge.”

She sighed. “You’re never going to let that go.”

“Should we also discuss how you don’t think I’m qualified to be an Avenger?”

“No,” she said.

“Great. Then I’ll pick you up tomorrow at noon. Please be on time.”

He pretended he didn’t see her scowl.

•••

“Why are you doing this?” They were on the way back to SHIELD. Their non-date had actually been really nice. She was definitely not the most open person he had ever been out with, but there was something about her.

He had seen it when they walked into the little diner he took her to —one hidden far away on a side street that looked like a shabby hole in the wall. That flicker of insecurity, quickly covered up by that expression that said she didn’t care about any of this. 

But he also watched her read the newspapers that covered the walls and study everything about the tiny restaurant and the few other patrons that were in there.

It made him want to know her, the _real_ her, the one not shaped by spy agencies and missions and undercover operations.

But to her question, he just shrugged. “I worked with you for two months,” he said. “And never knew who you really are. Maybe I just want to know.”

“I could just have Fury give you my file. It would be less painful for us both.”

“You could just tell me.”

“No,” she said. He’d had a feeling she’d say that.

“I get it,” he said. “There’s things in my past I’m not going to talk to anyone about either.”

He felt, rather than saw, her glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying,” he added.

This time he could have sworn he saw her smile. Just a little, but a smile nonetheless.

“I’m not sure I’m ever going to understand you, Tony Stark.”

“I could say the same about you, Natasha Romanoff.”

They had arrived back at SHIELD.

“Same time tomorrow?” she asked, her hand on the door, ready to open it.

He pretended to not be surprised. 

“I’ll be there.”

“Great. See you tomorrow, Stark.”

“See you Romanoff.”

He waited in the car, watching her walk away. He could ask Fury for her file. He’d probably tell him to shove it. He could ask his friend Agent for her file. He’d probably give it to him after asking Natasha if it was okay.

But he didn’t need her file. Some things he already knew (thanks, Internet). A little girl trained to be a killer. An international assassin wanted for some of the most heinous crimes. A woman who defected to SHIELD.

A woman trying to find her place in the world.

That’s who she really was. Tony was sure of that. And for some reason, he wanted to help her do that. He wasn’t sure why, or even how, but he’d figured it out.

He put the car into drive, revving the engine as he pulled.

He would be back tomorrow at noon to pick her up. Then the day after that. Then the day after that.

For as long as she would let him.


End file.
